Cannes Strike: Audiovisual Branch Of Major French Union CGT Throws Weight Behind Festival Workers

Cannes Film Festival. The actress and singer, 31, was moved to tears after her new film, “Emilia Perez” received a 9 minute-long standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. This marked the longest standing ovation for any movie premiere at the France-based cinema bash so far this year.A Variety video shows Gomez smiling and tearing up as the crowd cheers after watching her performance in the film.Directed by Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Perez” is about a Mexican cartel leader, played by Karla Sofía Gascón, who is seeking gender-affirming surgery.

Imagine a film where Cate Blanchett plays a version of Angela Merkel. And Charles Dance is a Joe Biden parody in full British accent.

CANNES – You have to give Jacques Audiard credit. The famed French filmmaker has proven time and time again he isn’t afraid to take big swings.

The anarchic spirit of Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane lives on in Emma Benestan’s Critics Week closer Animale, the genre-busting debut of a director who cites Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, and the naturalist films of Chloé Zhao as influences. More surprisingly, she also credits Abdellatif Kechiche, since her first break was as assistant editor on his 2013 Palme d’Or winner Blue Is the Warmest Colour. 

Filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” horror had been under wraps for some time. Described as a body horror seen through a feminist lens, for months, all the French writer/director has said about the movie was that it would “push boundaries with a different kind of violence.” But if the Cannes Film Festival synopsis wasn’t already self-evident, the newly released teaser for “The Substance” basically gives up the ghost.

Rithy Panh has dedicated the lion’s share of his career to interrogating the genocidal Khmer Rouge era in his native Cambodia, and it is no trivial obsession. Panh fled Phnom Penh when he was just 11, and after his family was devastated in the Killing Fields, he escaped to a Thai refugee camp at 15. Now 60, Panh has been committed to keeping the memory of the impact of Pol Pot’s tyrannical regime alive in documentary, narrative and animated film.

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov to Cannes this year with his fourth film in Competition and his first in English. Titled Limonov: The Ballad, it tells the incredible story of Eduard Limonov — pronounced “Le-morrr-nov” not “Limunuv” — a Russian renegade poet who traversed the world, reinventing himself whenever times got hard (and they usually did). To star, the director chose British actor Ben Whishaw, himself a chameleonic actor who’s just as at home taking tea with the Queen in his Paddington guise as he is playing Hamlet onstage at the Old Vic. Here, he talks about getting to grips with an enigma and recalls his first-ever Cannes for her movie Bright Star in 2009.

“Mommie Dearest” actress walked the red carpet at the premiere of the action film “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” starring Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy. She was joined by Laurent Bouzereau, 62, who is the director of her new documentary that is premiering at Cannes, and her son Liam Dunaway O’Neill, 43, who appears in the HBO doc.The Hollywood icon wore a black blazer over a white shirt with black pants.

EXCLUSIVE: Meryl Streep says that a meeting is “imminent” where she’ll hear about the proposals for her to return for a third helping of Mamma Mia!

Ben Croll Shortly before last year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Sophie Fillières attended a cast and crew screening of “Anatomy of a Fall.” The filmmaker had a supporting role in the film, playing the deceased’s sister, and she soon celebrated her work’s Palme d’Or win from afar, hanging back in Paris, where she was preparing to shoot her seventh feature, “This Life of Mine.” The five-week production kicked off in late June, running smoothly and wrapping on the last day of July. The next day, Fillières checked into the hospital; in less than a month, she was gone.

As a #MeToo wave looked to rock the 77th Cannes Film Festival with rumors swirling that filmmakers with films at the event would be tagged, Thierry Frémaux emphasized his event isn’t about polemics, rather the picture that’s on the screen. If there are controversies during Cannes “we try to avoid them” he said today during an afternoon presser.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Nour Films has acquired French rights to Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

EXCLUSIVE: France’s main union for people employed in the entertainment and culture sectors – CGT-Spectacle – is poised to give its official support for planned strike action by festival workers during the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

With less than a week to go until the kick-off of the 81st Cannes Film Festival, speculation is mounting in the French media and local film industry over rumors that a bombshell #MeToo exposé will drop on the day of the opening.

The Anaheim City Council gave final approval today to DisneylandForward, the $1.9 billion, Disney’s multi-decade expansion plan for Walt’s original park. Today’s 7-0 procedural vote came after a unanimous vote approving the project in April. The zoning and other changes laid out by the plan to take effect in 30 days.

Olly Alexander has admitted that he is “ambivalent” about the Union Jack flag.The Years and Years star, who is set to perform for the UK with his song ‘Dizzy’ at the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden this Saturday (May 11), said he also found it “divisive” and “nationalist” but he wants to reclaim the flag in a “positive way”.Speaking to the media [via Metro] ahead of the contest, Alexander said: “I’ve grown up in the UK, there’s a lot that I love about the UK, maybe the people and I’m lucky to have grown up in the UK.“I too have an ambivalent relationship with the Union Jack and what that represents to people because it can feel divisive, it can feel nationalist, but it can also feel like a representation of what’s good about the UK and what makes it good – it’s the inclusivity, the diversity. I am choosing to kind of focus on those aspects of what I believe being in the UK has given me in my upbringing as well.”He continued: “I hope to reclaim the Union Jack in a positive way and when I’m going to be out there waving my flag, waving the Union Jack at the flag parade, it’s for all the good things that have come from growing up in the UK and being British and yeah, I think definitely focusing on that side of things.”It comes after Alexander recently reportedly broke down in tears during an interview when addressing the current controversies relating to Israel’s participation in this year’s competition.Alexander went on to say he supported “a ceasefire, returning the hostages, the safety and security of all people in Gaza.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent One day after the “Sous les écrans la dèche” collective, made up of freelance festival workers, issued a call for a strike during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, organizers have issued a joint statement where they encouraged all parties to “come together around the bargaining table.” The statement, signed by the Cannes Film Festival as well as parallel sections Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week and ACID, said they acknowledge the “difficulties faced by some of their staff” due to a reform of the “French unemployment insurance scheme,” and that they “hope that solutions will be found.” The organization is protesting against a looming labor reform that will see their unemployment indemnities slashed by more than half. The org brings together hundreds of workers at festivals, from projectionists to drivers and caterers, who are threatening to strike during Cannes which could potentially cause major disruptions.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent An organization representing freelance festival workers is calling for a strike during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. Called Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens), the org is protesting against a looming labor reform that will see their unemployment indemnities slashed by more than half.

The strike is on. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Morgan Freeman will receive the Crystal Nymph Award at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, which runs June 14-18 in Monaco. Freeman will receive the award at the opening ceremony from Prince Albert II of Monaco, in recognition of his television career.